Political Economy, Political Theory and History

Fast Facts: Gender Social Inequality and Austerity in Europe

Europe’s austerity fetish and longer term neo-liberal reforms promoted by Big Business, Governments and the EU Commission hurt women disproportionately. Here’s a few facts to illustrate the point.

Europe wide

The gender pay gap is around 16%

It ranges from more than a quarter (27%) in Estonia to around a fiftieth (2%) in Slovenia. The latest figures from Eurostat suggest that at least until 2010, the gender pay gap appears to have been narrowing. However, there was no further progress in 2011 ·

The gender gap in pensions is currently 39% on average in the EU – largely a result of the gender pay gap

Across the European Union, the poverty rate of women is higher than of men: it is at 17.1 % against 15.7 % for men (data from 2010). The gaps in poverty levels to the detriment of women are highest in Romania, Sweden, Austria and Italy (about 3…